♥ Me ♥

I'm a second grade teacher. I love to create and inspire. I believe in creating products that involve higher level learning and critical thinking skills. I like to surround myself and my littles in positivity, kindness, creativity, technology, and the beauty of humanity. ♥

Blog Archive

Monday, September 7, 2015

LaborLESS: Bloghop and Giveaway! ♥

Hello everyone!

ARE YOU REAAADDDY!!!

It is Finally here!

Today I am linking with Laura from Where the Magic Happens, Krista from Teaching Momster, and Lisa from PAWsitively Teaching! I have joined forces once again with my bloggy friends to bring you the best, most amazing giveaway on this Labor Day weekend!All of us have been thinking about good ways in which to treat our readers and followers. We thought hard, and I mean it! Really, really hard…and decided that we can treat you to our best ideas to work smarter rather than harder…at school and home! I know what it takes to be a great teacher, the stress, the time, the energy…I could go on and on! I also know that we crave time to ourselves and our families.

So here I go!

By the time I had my very own classroom, I had collected hundreds and hundreds of books for my classroom library. I knew exactly what kind of library I wanted and what my students needed from it to be successful. I worked hard that first summer and labeled hundreds of books for the area in my classroom that would house my Leveled books. I even made labels for the outside of the books so that we could put them back where they belonged.

I didn't do this to my themed books and it. was. chaos! My students would go book shopping and they wouldn't know where to put the books back so I had a couple of baskets where they would return the books. Then there was those students that were looking for the book Sally had and now that book is in the middle of the returned pile, which created an even bigger mess. At the end of
the day, willing that I had the energy, I would have to put all the
books back myself. Of course you can imagine how much time that took as
the themed baskets were labeled, but the books themselves weren't. Needless to say, it was a lot of extra work. I was definitely working harder, NOT smarter.

I decided that needed to change for my sanity to stay intact. My second summer as a teacher was spent labeling my themed library. I made labels for all of my different books, then covered the book label with Heavy Duty tape so it would last a long time. I began the school year with teaching my students how every book has a label and the label matches the label on the front of the basket. I taught them explicitly how to take books out of the baskets and how to gently put the books back. I had finally reached Classroom Library paradise. By taking the time up front to label all of my books, my students had the ability to independently find what they were looking for and I had one less task on my list at the end of the day.

After a couple of years in the classroom and having collected thousands of books in my collection, I needed a way to keep track of all my books so that I could search for the book I needed and know exactly what basket it's located in. It would also help me not buy duplicates anymore and find the mentor texts I needed to teach. Come in, LibraryThing. AMAZING website!!!! It's a database for your books. You can tag your books and sort them so many different ways. You can add comprehension skill tags, levels, themes, genres, Dewey Decimal, lexile...whatever your heart desires. Then it lets you search for them. I bought a barcode scanner and went to town. Crazy, I know, but I'm that serious about my books, LOL. OH, and did I mention it's free? Well it is! Check it out. I am sure you will love it and it will make your teacher life easier in the long run! :)

I still have a couple hundred books I need to scan into LibraryThing, but I am now a Media Specialist and have not made it a priority, I am thinking maybe next summer!

After a long day at work, I love to come home and have some time to decompress. We work so hard, it's important to take a little bit of time each day for ourselves, to do something that fills our bucket! I personally love to unwind by spending time with my boyfriend. We make dinner or go out to dinner and have an opportunity to just talk about everything. I look forward to this time, it allows us to connect and share. Talking to my boyfriend helps me put my day into perspective and helps us build a stronger bond.

Reading a book is also a fabulous way to unwind. I like to read, even if it's just a few pages every day. Losing myself in the pages of a book allows me to slip into the story and helps me feel the stress in my own life melts away.

Watching mindless T.V. is another favorite way to unwind! I have quite a few favorite shows that we DVR so we can skip the commercials and get right to the nitty gritty! I was never a fan of shows like Bachelor in Paradise before, but lately I've been getting into them!

How do YOU like to unwind after a long day?

If you loved how the library labels have made a difference in my life, you can find them in my TpT store! They are my best-selling item and I truly feel they will transform your classroom library! They sure did for me. These labels will not only make your life easier, but your students' life too! Oh and they look gorgeous to boot! :)

I hope you guys have enjoyed reading! Go ahead and top all these great tips and ideas with these top-notch prizes!

♥ A $100 gift card to Amazon ♥

♥ A $50 gift card to TpT ♥

♥ Two $25 gift cards to TpT ♥

♥ One $10 gift card to TpT ♥

Thank you for reading! And now don't be silly and get your hands all over this awesome giveaway!!